Option Solving Blog

As new Covid variants come and go with various intensities, a strong debate has arisen about the effectiveness of mask wearing and the continuation of mask mandates. Clearly people are tired of wearing them and the advent of vaccines, growing population immunity, and other treatments has reduced the overall risks of serious infection and mortality. The question then arises with regard to future national policies: What is the USA’s optimal option for future Covid mask wearing?

 So related to this question comes the relevant OS question: “What is USAs best option for future Covid mask wearing; considering 1) overall skepticism about mask wearing, 2) population generally weary of mask wearing, 3) likely future new variant outbreaks, and 4) increasing effectiveness of vaccines and treatments?” Again, it’s appropriate for government leaders to focus on just these latter four considerations to reduce complexity in any eventual decision – when the ultimate decision moment arrives – despite there being many other possible considerations out there.

We would again encourage national leaders to consider fresh yin and yang “bookends”,as these will help keep their intuitive minds focused against other mental distractions. Bookends such as these are vital for preventing our fertile intuitive minds from wandering and losing concentration. We are mostly unaware of how powerfully valuable but foot-loose our intuition can be unless we can keep it properly focused on such occasions.   

The two new bookends proposed are: “Leave it open for individual-voluntary decisions” – Health authorities abdicate responsibility;and “Impose complete lockdowns for any outbreaks” – Strong public backlash. You will note the italicized detractors associated with these least likely options, which shows why they were put out of consideration. Even so, these bookends now nudge the nation’s political leadership’s intuitive thinking into high gear again, to consider a range of realistic options – see ourLatest Worked Example.

Their advisors have now come up with six new realistic options – A thru F. National leaders will then be positioned to pursue emotional distancing beforethey proceed with any outcome decision. They would then review these declared options, perhaps after 2 hours, later in the day, or first thing the following morning, before arriving at an optimal conclusion. You can replace its proposed options with any of your own.

While all the options looked quite relevant, the nation’s political leadership was likely initially particularly intrigued by – Option E: Allow State governments to decide. The various government leaders then again decided to sleep on it until the following morning and then proceed accordingly. They are strongly encouraged to stick with whatever option the overall, aggregate intuition choice happens to be, so as to capitalize on their “wisdom of the crowd.”

If you have an example of your own, please share it with this blogger, through the COMMENTS area or contact him at peter@ileadershipsolutions.com .  Thanks Option Solving. (NOTE: Our next posting will be in two week’s time: “What is this writer’s best option to keep his book publi-cation on track?”  Let’s have your COMMENTS or go to peter@ileadershipsolutions.com to connect with the blogger. Also consider buying the book: “Smart Decisions: Goodbye Problems, Hello Options” through amazon.com)

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